A scans the sea for fish from 100 feet in the air. Upon seeing a school, it pitches its body into a nosedive, somehow breaking the surface at 70 miles per hour without breaking its neck. This daring maneuver seems to defy the laws of nature, but it’s standard hunting behavior for plunge-diving seabirds.

A 天美影视传媒 study in the Anatomical Record shows that gannets and boobies have unique morphological adaptations that allow them to survive impact. Several of their neck vertebrae are joined by an additional contact surface that helps stabilize the cervical column. The overall shape of the vertebrae is also stockier than other birds.

鈥淲e wanted to figure out what makes gannets so special, so good at diving and looking at their biology helped us understand how they can survive these impacts,鈥� said senior author , a postdoctoral scholar at the UW鈥檚 Friday Harbor Labs.

The ecological record shows repeated instances in which birds develop physical traits in response to their environment. Charles Darwin was among the first to record this in in the 1830s 鈥� in finches on the Gal谩pagos Islands 鈥� and researchers are still discovering new examples today. The connection between beak shape and foraging behavior is well documented, but the link between neck structure and feeding has received less attention.

The UW researchers began years ago. Gannets are built to withstand immense pressure on the head and neck that compresses the cervical column. Engineers typically favor short and fat structures for things built to tolerate compressive force, but these birds have long, slender necks with segmented vertebrae.

Gannet necks have 15 stacked vertebrae that bend slightly in an s-curve. that the muscles surrounding their vertebrae help lock them in place to prepare for impact, but few studies have looked at the actual morphology of听diving birds鈥� necks.

To do so, the researchers collected specimens of diving birds and non-diving birds from . The team performed CT scans to create detailed three-dimensional models of the cervical vertebrae and then analyzed the images with geometric , a statistical method for studying biological samples that establishes landmarks for comparison. They considered the forces associated with various feeding styles and chose birds that represented a spectrum, pulling in additional morphological data from .

鈥淏irds that rotate their heads side to side, or move them front to back, separate out from birds that use their heads in compression,鈥� said lead author , a graduate student of biology at UW鈥檚 Friday Harbor Labs. 鈥淲e see that the birds that plunge-dive have more robust vertebrae. They’re thicker, wider, and also shorter, shaped more like a square.鈥�

The stocky shape of the vertebrae provides added support, as does the additional contact surface, called an articular facet, in second through the sixth vertebrae. In this case, researchers think the extra facet keeps the birds鈥� necks from bending backward when they hit the water at an angle. Instead, the load gets transferred down the cervical column.

The researchers also observed more blocklike vertebrae in other diving birds, such as the kingfisher, but did not detect the extra facet. Kingfishers belong to a different avian family and are much smaller than gannets and boobies, but their necks seem to have evolved in a similar way. The structural relationship is also proportional: the larger the neck, the larger the vertebrae.

Kingfishers and the bigger plunge-divers also experience the same amount of force per neck area during a dive. Although total force scales with neck size, the amount of stress on the tissue is the same. Both groups experienced peak force nearly five milliseconds after impact despite the size difference.

Moving forward, the researchers hope to explore how force transfers down the neck in more detail. They also think this link between structure and function could help paleontologists identify plunge-diving birds from fossils.

鈥淚t feels like something I didn’t previously think about and probably overlooked before,鈥� Vanderberg said. 鈥淚’m curious to start looking more closely at vertebrae in general, not just in birds.鈥�

Co-authors include , professor of biology and of aquatic and fishery sciences at UW; , assistant professor of aeronautics and astronautics at UW; , graduate student of mechanical engineering at the UW; and of the University of California, Riverside.

This research was funded by the U.S. National Science Foundation, Beatrice and Samuel A. Seaver Foundation, Friday Harbor Laboratories Research Endowment Fellowship, 天美影视传媒 Friday Harbor Laboratories Award, and Jim and Camille Uhlir.

For more information, contact Vandenberg at megvdb4@uw.edu.

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Motion-triggered cameras showcase the prevalence of ‘nectar robbing’ in Hawaiian flowers

Some long curved bills are the perfect implement for drawing sweet nectar from deep within a lobelioid flower. As birds reach into flowers to access the nectar stored near the base, their bills can brush against the ‘ pollen-bearing structures, making hungry honeycreepers important pollinators. But some of these specialized honeycreepers have gone extinct. Shorter-billed species can now 鈥渞ob鈥� nectar 鈥� without contacting the flower’s pollen-bearing structures 鈥� from the endangered flowers. A UW-led team used motion cameras to gauge how often nectar robbing occurs. The results, in Ecology and Evolution, reveal both nectar robbing and pollination visits, showcasing a broader pattern that the team previously identified . Nectar robbing can damage flowers and leave less nectar for other potential pollinators. The researchers 3D printed a bird bill to simulate nectar robbing and track changes in nectar availability and the plants’ ability to reproduce. Damaged flowers often struggled to replenish their nectar stores, but were still able to produce fruit and viable seeds. These studies are part of a that aims to catalog Hawaiian bird-plant interactions through time, specifically tracking how these interactions are reshaped by extinction.

For more information, contact lead author , a UW research scientist in the biology department, at sam.case24@gmail.com.

The other UW co-authors are , Christopher Steinbronn and . A full list of co-authors and funding is .

People with anxious attachment styles are more likely get emotionally involved with ChatGPT

rose to popularity in the late 20th Century as a way to categorize how people bond with others. Someone with an anxious attachment style, for instance, fears abandonment and rejection, whereas someone with an avoidant attachment style is independent at the cost of personal closeness. In , UW researchers explored how peoples鈥� attachment styles affect their interactions with ChatGPT. The team analyzed the chat histories of 105 young adults, each of whom completed an attachment-style survey. Researchers found that they could automatically detect peoples鈥� attachment styles based on their interactions with the chatbot. People with an anxious attachment style were more likely to be emotionally involved with the AI system, writing things like 鈥淐an you please love me?鈥� and 鈥淚 miss my ex and I can鈥檛 sleep because of it.鈥� Anxious users were also more prone to trust ChatGPT and to follow its recommendations. The team argues that this highlights the need for policies that prohibit companies from psychologically profiling users without their consent, since it leaves them vulnerable to manipulation.

For more information, contact senior author , a UW associate professor in the Information School, at alexisr@uw.edu or lead author , a doctoral student in the Information School, at marxwang@uw.edu.

The other UW co-authors are , , and .

Nursing is a major energy suck, but it鈥檚 difficult to estimate the toll for many marine mammals

Marine mammals lactate like any other mammal, but the energetic demands are difficult to measure in wild animals and thus not well understood.听 Researchers are concerned that some marine mammals may not be getting enough food, which can lead to failure to reproduce and . To understand the link between nutritional status and reproduction, researchers need to know what marine mammals require to rear offspring. A published in PLOS One modeled the daily costs of lactation using data from semi-aquatic and terrestrial mammals to explore whether results could be generalized to other species, like whales and dolphins. Modeling could approximate lactation costs of certain understudied marine mammals, including seals and sea lions, but appeared unable to produce accurate estimates for whales and dolphins. Lactation costs increase over time for most animals, but seem to be higher early in lactation for marine mammals, possibly due to their fully aquatic lifestyle. The study highlights a need for other methods to fill the remaining data gap to better understand the impacts of environmental change on marine mammals.

For more information, contact lead author , a research scientist in the UW Cooperative Institute for Climate, Ocean, & Ecosystem Studies, at emchuron@uw.edu. Funding information is .

Simulations suggest that lasers could ‘calm’ persnickety plasma

could supply humanity with 鈥� provided that scientists and engineers can work out how to create sustained fusion reactions safely, efficiently and affordably. The trick is in the taming of , a superhot state of matter made of free-floating electrons and atomic nuclei. When compressed to outlandish pressures and temperatures in a reactor, the nuclei fuse with one another, releasing energy. In that extreme environment, plasma forms instabilities that can derail a fusion reaction; much fusion research is focused on 鈥渃alming鈥� volatile plasma. published in Physics of Plasmas, UW researchers and other collaborators simulated a novel strategy to control instabilities using two opposing laser beams. By tuning the lasers鈥� properties 鈥� such as their frequency and polarity 鈥� the researchers prevented instabilities from growing and cascading. Surprisingly, the lasers also delayed other instabilities within the plasma, even though they were not directly targeted by the laser fields. By taking advantage of interactions within the plasma, the researchers found a way to calm instabilities indirectly. The results could help experts develop algorithms that stabilize plasma in real time, sustaining fusion conditions long enough to produce useful energy.

For more information, contact , UW professor of aeronautics and astronautics at shumlak@uw.edu.

A full list of co-authors and funding is .

When exposed to air, new nanomaterial becomes magnetic at high temperatures

While fridge magnets are great for saving favorite recipes, modern magnetic materials are useful for improving fiber optics or quantum information sciences technology. If you zoomed in on most fridge magnets, you’d see the atoms arranged in a repeated lattice structure called a “spinel.” These structures are made up of three types of atoms, generically referred to as atoms “A,” “B” and “X.” In a paper in the Journal of the American Chemical Society, UW researchers describe two new spinels made of silver, chromium and selenium ions. These are among the first spinels to include a silver ion in the “A” slot, the slot that determines the “vibe” of the spinel, or how it will react to various stimuli, such as light, heat or air. When exposed to air, the original spinel loses silver ions and transforms into the second spinel. The second spinel maintains its magnetic properties up to 400 Kelvin, or 260 degrees Fahrenheit; the original loses its magnetism at 152 K, or -185 F. This is the largest change ever documented in what is known as the Curie temperature, or the highest temperature at which a material is still magnetic. The researchers plan to continue to explore these two materials and what they can teach us about the fundamentals of magnetism.

For more information, contact lead author , UW doctoral student in chemistry, at ekbacong@uw.edu.听听听听听

The other UW co-authors are Charlize Agag, , , , Yinuo Xu, , , and . A full list of co-authors and funding is .

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UW professor of aeronautics and astronautics took a ride Wednesday morning aboard a U.S. Navy Boeing F/A-18 Super Hornet 鈥� better known as one of the Blue Angels flight demonstration squadron.听

Shortly before 9 a.m., the Blue Angel jet with Hermanson aboard roared above the UW. Back safely on the ground, Hermanson said he enjoyed talking with the pilot and encountering firsthand what it’s like to to fly aboard high-performance jet aircraft. He experienced an afterburner takeoff, very tight turns and flying up-side down.

鈥淭he actual maneuverings are really something,鈥� Hermanson said. 鈥淲e got up to 7.5 Gs during one of those turns.鈥�

Hermanson is known for his decades of research on topics related to jet and spacecraft propulsion, but this was his first time flying at about 700 mph in a Navy jet. During his time at UW, Hermanson鈥檚 been a big supporter of the Navy at the UW: He has hosted high-ranking Navy officials and helped showcase many Navy career opportunities for students.听

During Wednesday鈥檚 flight, Hermanson told the pilot that he teaches students about acceleration, wing loading and other principles, but his time flying with the Blue Angels will add a deeper dimension.

鈥淚 could tell students what it is actually like, the high level of technology, the teamwork needed to make the flight possible and the importance of the Navy to our nation,鈥� Hermanson said.

Former UW President Mark Emmert, who left the UW in 2010, was the last UW faculty member invited to fly aboard the Blue Angels.

The Blue Angels are in Seattle for the annual Seafair Weekend Festival and the Boeing Seafair Air Show.

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NASA last month to establish a regional scientific consortium based at the 天美影视传媒, in partnership with Washington State University and the Pacific Northwest National Laboratory, that will use an interdisciplinary approach to explore how the space environment 鈥� both in low-Earth orbit and beyond 鈥� affects living things.

The , which stands for Biology in Space: Establishing Networks for DUrable & REsilient Systems, will focus on innovation, acceleration and implementation of knowledge and technology of space biology centered on human-plant-microbiome relationships. The long-term goal is to enable a durable听human presence in low Earth orbit, 90 to 600 miles altitude, and beyond.

“The establishment of the BioS-ENDURES Consortium marks an exciting new chapter in space biology research at UW, WSU and PNNL,” said principal investigator , professor and chair of aeronautics and astronautics at the UW. “We’ve long recognized that successful long-term space presence requires more than just rockets and spacecraft 鈥� it demands a deep understanding of the complex interactions between humans, plants and microorganisms in space environments.

鈥淚’m particularly excited that through this consortium, we’re bringing together experts across all three institutions to develop new ways to monitor and predict these biological interactions in space, work that will be crucial for establishing a sustainable human presence beyond Earth.”

The team includes biologists studying humans, animals and plants, who will work together with microbiologists and other experts to ensure an integrated view of the space flight biosphere by enhancing data acquisition, modeling and testing. BioS-ENDURES has three focus areas related to the effects of spaceflight stressors:

• Develop monitoring to measure underlying molecular status, or biomarkers, in humans, animals, plants and their associated microbial communities
• Create models that predict human-plant-microbe robustness and interactions among organisms in space
• Validate and apply understanding of human and plant health, including promoting beneficial human-plant-microbe interactions, to enhance health in space

At the UW, the interdisciplinary team includes and in microbiology; and in environmental and forest sciences; in Earth and space sciences; in pharmaceutics; Marissa Kranz at the UW Medical Cyclotron Facility; and in genome sciences; Dr. in laboratory medicine and pathology at the UW School of Medicine; in pharmacy; and in oceanography.

The BioS-ENDURES Consortium builds on a collaboration between the UW, WSU, PNNL and science and industry advisory boards. Consortium members will work with NASA to align work with current and projected needs. The funding is spread out over five years and will support yearly proof-of-principle demonstration projects to advance the science of the three focuses, annual symposia tracks, and physical testing.

“The 天美影视传媒 is excited to have this opportunity to contribute to the听development of new capabilities that will enable a sustainable听human presence in space,”听said Mari Ostendorf, vice provost of research at the UW and UW professor of electrical and computer engineering.听“This consortium enables new partnerships and brings together investigators who have a long history with NASA and space applications with researchers who have deep expertise in human/animal, plant and microbial biology.听This research will push the boundaries of our scientific understanding to reveal new biological mechanisms that will address both sustainability and risk mitigation needs in space.听We look forward working with WSU, PNNL and NASA, as well as with other industry and science partners to accelerate space technology.”

For more information, see or contact Morgansen at morgansn@uw.edu. 听

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UPDATE (Aug. 2, 2024): A previous version of this story misstated Paul Kinahan’s name.

Fifteen faculty members at the 天美影视传媒 have been elected to the Washington State Academy of Sciences. They are among 36 scientists and educators from across the state . Selection recognizes the new members鈥� 鈥渙utstanding record of scientific and technical achievement, and their willingness to work on behalf of the academy to bring the best available science to bear on issues within the state of Washington.鈥�

Twelve UW faculty members were selected by current WSAS members. They are:

• , associate professor of epidemiology, of health systems and population health, and of child, family and population health nursing, who 鈥減ossesses the rare combination of scientific rigor and courageous commitment to local community health. Identifying original ways to examine questions, and seeking out appropriate scientific methods to study those questions, allow her to translate research to collaborative community interventions with a direct impact on the health of communities.鈥�
• , the Shauna C. Larson endowed chair in learning sciences, for 鈥渉is work in the cultural basis of scientific research and learning, bringing rigor and light to multiculturalism in science and STEM education through STEM Teaching Tools and other programs.鈥�
• , professor of psychiatry and behavioral sciences, 鈥渇or her sustained commitment to community-engaged, science-driven practice and policy change related to the prevention of suicide and the promotion of mental health, with a focus on providing effective, sustainable and culturally appropriate care to people with serious mental illness.鈥�
• , the David and Nancy Auth endowed professor in bioengineering, who has 鈥渃harted new paths for 30-plus years. Her quest to deeply understand protein folding/unfolding and the link to amyloid diseases has propelled her to pioneer unique computational and experimental methods leading to the discovery and characterization of a new protein structure linked to toxicity early in amyloidogenesis.鈥�
• , professor of environmental and occupational health sciences, of global health, and of emergency medicine, who is 鈥渁 global and national leader at the intersection of climate change and health whose work has advanced our understanding of climate change health effects and has informed the design of preparedness and disaster response planning in Washington state, nationally and globally.鈥�
• , professor of bioengineering and of radiology, who is 鈥渞ecognized for his contributions to the science and engineering of medical imaging systems and for leadership in national programs and professional and scientific societies advancing the capabilities of medical imaging.鈥�
• , the Donald W. and Ruth Mary Close professor of electrical and computer engineering and faculty member in the UW Clean Energy Institute, who is 鈥渞ecognized for his distinguished research contributions to the design and operation of economical, reliable and environmentally sustainable power systems, and the development of influential educational materials used to train the next generation of power engineers.鈥�
• , senior vice president and director of the Vaccine and Infectious Disease Division at the Fred Hutchinson Cancer Center, the Joel D. Meyers endowed chair of clinical research and of vaccine and infectious disease at Fred Hutch, and UW professor of medicine, who is 鈥渋s recognized for her seminal contributions to developing validated laboratory methods for interrogating cellular and humoral immune responses to HIV, TB and COVID-19 vaccines, which has led to the analysis of more than 100 vaccine and monoclonal antibody trials for nearly three decades, including evidence of T-cell immune responses as a correlate of vaccine protection.鈥�
• , professor of political science and the Walker family professor for the arts and sciences, who is a specialist 鈥渋n environmental politics, international political economy, and the politics of nonprofit organizations. He is widely recognized as a leader in the field of environmental politics, best known for his path-breaking research on the role firms and nongovernmental organizations can play in promoting more stringent regulatory standards.鈥�
• , the Ballmer endowed dean of social work, for investigations of 鈥渉ow inequality, in its many forms, affects health, illness and quality of life. He has developed unique conceptual frameworks to investigate how race, ethnicity and immigration are associated with health and social outcomes.鈥�
• , professor of chemistry, who is elected 鈥渇or distinguished scientific and community contributions to advancing the field of electron paramagnetic resonance spectroscopy, which have transformed how researchers worldwide analyze data.鈥�
• , professor of bioengineering and of ophthalmology, whose 鈥減ioneering work in biomedical optics, including the invention of optical microangiography and development of novel imaging technologies, has transformed clinical practice, significantly improving patient outcomes. Through his numerous publications, patents and clinical translations, his research has helped shape the field of biomedical optics.鈥�

Three new UW members of the academy were selected by virtue of their previous election to one of the National Academies. They are:

• , professor of atmospheric and climate science, who had been elected to the National Academy of Sciences 鈥渇or contributions to research and expertise in atmospheric radiation and cloud processes, remote sensing, cloud/aerosol/radiation/climate interactions, stratospheric circulation and stratosphere-troposphere exchanges and coupling, and climate change.鈥�
• , the Bartley Dobb professor for the study and prevention of violence in the Department of Epidemiology and a UW professor of pediatrics, who had been elected to the National Academy of Medicine 鈥渇or being a national public health leader whose innovative and multidisciplinary research to integrate data across the health care system and criminal legal system has deepened our understanding of the risk and consequences of firearm-related harm and informed policies and programs to reduce its burden, especially among underserved communities and populations.鈥�
• , division chief of general pediatrics at Seattle Children鈥檚 Hospital and a UW professor of pediatrics, who had been elected to the National Academy of Medicine 鈥渇or her leadership in advancing child health equity through scholarship in community-partnered design of innovative care models in pediatric primary care. Her work has transformed our understanding of how to deliver child preventive health care during the critical early childhood period to achieve equitable health outcomes and reduce disparities.鈥�

In addition, Dr. , president and director of the Fred Hutchinson Cancer Center and of the Cancer Consortium 鈥� a partnership between the UW, Seattle Children鈥檚 Hospital and Fred Hutch 鈥� was elected to the academy for being 鈥減art of a research effort that found mutations in the cell-surface protein epidermal growth factor receptor (EGFR), which plays an important role in helping lung cancer cells survive. Today, drugs that target EGFR can dramatically change outcomes for lung cancer patients by slowing the progression of the cancer.鈥�

the Boeing-Egtvedt endowed professor and chair in aeronautics and astronautics, will join the board effective Sept. 30. Morgansen was elected to WSAS in 2021 鈥渇or significant advances in nonlinear methods for integrated sensing and control in engineered, bioinspired and biological flight systems,鈥� and 鈥渇or leadership in cross-disciplinary aerospace workforce development.鈥� She is currently director of the Washington NASA Space Grant Consortium, co-director of the UW Space Policy and Research Center and chair of the AIAA Aerospace Department Chairs Association. She is also a member of the WSAS education committee.

鈥淚 am excited to serve on the WSAS board and work with WSAS members to leverage and grow WSAS鈥檚 impact by identifying new opportunities for WSAS to collaborate and partner with the state in addressing the state鈥檚 needs,鈥� said Morgansen.

The new members to the Washington State Academy of Sciences will be formally inducted in September.

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Students from the Lummi Nation School visited the 天美影视传媒 in early February for a real-time conversation with astronaut Josh Cassada aboard the International Space Station (ISS). As part of a science project on the plant 鈥� a Pacific Northwest species that is significant in Lummi culture 鈥� seeds were sent to the ISS in late 2022. Cassada was the astronaut who worked on the plant experiment and germinated Devil’s club seeds to compare them to a similar plant of the same species on Earth.听

The Lummi Nation School students as well as students from the UW had a rare opportunity for a live Q&A with Cassada (with a few seconds鈥� delay) about his life and current job on the ISS. The conversation was possible because of a “downlink,” which allows participants on Earth to see video and hear audio from the astronaut in space.听

The event included presentations by UW students, professors Emily Levesque (astronomy) and Gregg Colburn (real estate) as well as a panel with former Seattle astronaut Dottie Metcalf-Lindenburger. It was hosted by the UW and the a group whose mission is to enhance higher education opportunities for students seeking to pursue careers in the fields of science, technology, engineering and math.

More details about the event are . You can watch a recording of the downlink Q&A .

See related coverage on and

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Eight teams of college students will arrive on the 天美影视传媒 campus Aug. 19 to go to the moon 鈥� or at least a simulated version of it.

In 2020, UW received a nearly $500,000 grant to run one of in which participants turn a model lunar lava tube into a habitat suitable for housing humans on the moon or Mars.

Six university-based programs were funded through , which aims to build knowledge and introduce students to critical topics and technologies related to the Artemis program.

has a launch window of Aug. 29-Sept. 5 and will be an uncrewed test mission for a program that will eventually send humans to the lunar surface. Meanwhile, at UW, student teams will put their rovers through a lunar challenge course to generate maps, locate resources and seal off tubes as potential living quarters.

鈥淪kylight features have been observed on the moon, which could lead to lava tubes on what are essentially underground tunnels,鈥� said , deputy director of the , or WSGC. 鈥淚f we wanted to explore those, the idea is that you would send a rover down before you sent an astronaut. If you sent a rover down there and it looked good, you might use that structure for something else, like a human habitat.鈥�

WSGC, housed in the William E. Boeing Department of Aeronautics and Astronautics, is comprised of more than a dozen institutions within Washington state. Central Washington University, Heritage University, Seattle Central College, Washington State University and more.

STEM majors at two- and four-year colleges were invited to participate in the Artemis challenge, with WSGC providing robot kits, other related materials and stipends. Denmon said one of the main goals was to reach schools that don鈥檛 normally engage with NASA challenges.

Several tribal colleges 鈥� including Northwest Indian College in Bellingham and Salish Kootenai College in Montana 鈥� were heavily involved in the first stage, where students worked to establish what was needed to run the challenge.

Along with the UW, teams from Pierce College and Everett Community College will participate in this month鈥檚 final. University of Texas at El Paso is sending two teams. Five of the eight teams are from community colleges. Of the participants planning to attend, more than 40% are women and more than 50% are from historically underrepresented groups.

鈥淲e just did a lot of specific and targeted outreach to try and work within our networks and expand out from there,鈥� Denmon said. 鈥淚 emailed faculty at community colleges that had relevant programs in the state to let them know we were running a challenge and it was free to their students.鈥�

The second part of the challenge collided with the start of the COVID-19 pandemic, so teams mostly collaborated with faculty members at their respective locations. The award was originally for two years, but WSGC was asked to stretch to three years due to COVID.

Phase three was essentially a restart as students worked on their rovers through the 2022 spring and summer quarters. During the summer, they completed weekly workshops with UW graduate assistants. Now, they鈥檒l travel to UW for the day-long finale.

鈥淚t鈥檚 a challenge, not a competition,鈥� Denmon said. 鈥淭he main thing is they鈥檙e running their rovers in a dark, model lunar lava tube. We have a challenge course that we set up. They must navigate obstacles and complete all their mission objectives.鈥�

Each team will complete the challenge based on their level of expertise. For example, teams with little to no programming experience will use manually controlled robots provided by WSGC. At the other end of the spectrum, teams with programming and engineering or mechanical design experience will use custom-built rovers with autonomous navigation.

鈥淭his is the culmination,鈥� Denmon said. 鈥淲e鈥檙e going to do one big, exciting event. They get to run the rovers and see what they learned.鈥�

For more information, contact the Space Grant Consortium at nasa@uw.edu.

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The 鈥淛eopardy! College National Championship鈥� kicked off Feb. 8 on prime time, bringing together undergraduate students from 36 U.S. colleges and universities.

Kaden Lee, a UW junior from Medical Lake, Washington, majoring in aeronautics and astronautics, appeared in the tournament on Feb. 11. Lee, who uses the pronouns she/they/he, competed against Jess Agyepong of Howard University and Liz Feltner of Northeastern University. Feltner moved on to the tournament鈥檚 semifinals, and Lee came in second place.

Lee has been playing competitive trivia since high school, where they won the state Knowledge Bowl tournament with their high school team. They now compete on the UW鈥檚 team for , which Lee describes as 鈥渄efinitely a little more on the academic side鈥� than 鈥淛eopardy!鈥�

Lee鈥檚 journey to 鈥淛eopardy!,鈥� already chronicled in interviews with and , began with an unsuccessful try in high school. In early 2021, Lee got another shot at 鈥淛eopardy!鈥�, this time for the college tournament. Lee made it to the audition stage, where they played a practice game and interviewed over Zoom, then went to Culver City, California, around Thanksgiving.

UW Notebook talked to Lee about the experience of competing, the people they met, 鈥淛eopardy!鈥� strategy 鈥� and life after 15 minutes of fame. This interview has been edited for length and clarity.

Thank you for representing the UW. We were all really excited to see you on 鈥淛eopardy!鈥�

KL: We haven’t had another contestant since 2000, so we haven’t had a contestant since roughly when I was born. It was also kind of surreal to be the only person from the entire Pacific Northwest, because I was representing a whole region. There were mostly a lot of East Coast schools.

Representing a public school is another interesting point, because you’re going up against seven-out-of-eight Ivy League schools 鈥� you’re going up against MIT. So it’s just nice to be on the same stage competing and know that I’m there at the same caliber.

Mostly, I tried not to compare myself too much to the other people there, because I felt like I would have been comparing myself to the idea of what I thought the school is. In actuality, I think that education is education. Education is more of what you put into it than anything.

How much did you get to spend time with the other contestants and connect with them?

KL: Pretty much every moment that we weren’t busy filming I was probably hanging out with somebody. My big fear when I showed up was that everybody was going to be very competitive. And we showed up, and it was the most joyous, jovial environment possible. Many of us just were elated to be there because we all shared a very common bond: watching this quiz TV show since we were children and then getting to meet each other.

You’re not allowed to have your phones, because you can’t spoil the results and you can’t be videotaping anything. All we have to do the whole time is talk to each other 鈥� so we better like each other 鈥� and by the end of it we all pretty much did. I loved every single person that I met. We still hang out. We have a big group chat together.

What did you do when your episode aired?

KL: I kind of hopped around to a bunch of places. I did stuff on Friday night when the game aired, and then I did stuff on Saturday night when it was on Hulu.

It’s fun watching 鈥淛eopardy!鈥� with people who don’t normally watch it. Usually when I watch, it鈥檚 with people who are all pretty competitive. It was fun to watch it with people who haven’t seen 鈥淛eopardy!鈥� in a while and then watch the genuine excitement they feel when they get one right.

That’s my favorite 鈥� seeing a person get a question who never thinks that they’ll get a question. I love celebrating when other people get stuff right. That鈥檚 why I kind of take on more of a reading role [in trivia competitions]. I like to give people the opportunity to prove how intelligent they are, mostly to themselves.

Let’s get into the nitty gritty of the game. What categories were you excited to see?

KL: I was very excited when I had a literature category, because in Quiz Bowl I tend to specialize in lit. It didn’t go well for me 鈥� and I was very upset about it because I know both of the books for the questions I got wrong.

The 鈥淔amous Aquarians鈥� category was a weird one. I remember not quite understanding what that category was going to be about right off the bat and just wanting to stay away from it.听 I liked 鈥淣otable African Americans鈥� 鈥� that was a really good one because it covered a lot of history content that I knew.

I love literature, I always love art, but on my board, specifically, I think I was really excited when I saw a question with the word 鈥淪nohomish鈥� in it. Then Liz beat me to it.

A lot of how I played was essentially either just looking for Daily Doubles or playing in a slightly random way in order to maybe throw people off.

I saw in one of your interviews that you discussed your strategy for tackling the board. You said you just wanted to be comfortable.

KL: There’s a lot of discourse right now about how you should play 鈥淛eopardy!鈥� And a lot of people say you should play with that strict bottom-up strategy [starting with highest value clues]. And the real truth is that you should play that bottom-up way if you’re always in control of the board, but you’re not always going to be in control of the board 鈥� especially when playing against someone as good as Jess.

She was one of the most threatening people at the whole tournament, based on talking to people and then knowing her background, knowing she had been such a prolific Quiz Bowl player. And her demeanor going up to the stage: I could tell that she was very focused and very much wanted to do well. And her buzzer speed was just insane. I know her buzzer percentage [the percentage of times she buzzed in] was definitely higher than mine.

Knowing that Jess was probably going to be able to have control of the board, I knew that I wasn’t really going to be able to dictate the flow of play. I was more concerned about getting onto a category and then knowing what category to choose. The advantage of that is that the other players have to react to what category you say.

How did you prepare for 鈥淛eopardy!鈥�?

KL: I stood while reading through [an online archive of 鈥淛eopardy!鈥� questions]. Or having people read for me and then standing while doing it. Because when you sit at home on your couch it’s great, but it’s an entirely different experience standing up with bright stage lights at 9 a.m.

I liked practicing while I was out of breath, because I felt like, if I could keep my mind straight enough to think about the categories and think about the answers while barely being able to breathe, it would work. I鈥檇 do that, while I was either walking or running.

Sometimes I would practice with a little desk lamp facing me, so I was used to being flooded out with light, which definitely did help because I was used to feeling light directly on me.

What advice do you have for people who want to get on 鈥淛eopardy!鈥�?

KL: If you want to buckle down and try to study all of the material, there are a lot of guides on how to do that. But you can’t just drop everything in your life and start studying. I’m a college student. I had to do homework.

The biggest thing I would say is to take the to try out for it, because you never know. I didn’t think I would ever make it. And I got on, and I was shocked. I cried in the Cedar Hall Residents Office about it. I’m an RA, and I was doing my office hours at the time. I got the call and I freaked out.

Is it true you can鈥檛 go on 鈥淛eopardy!鈥� again?

KL: I believe you can be on 鈥淛eopardy!鈥� only one time. Now I don’t have to worry about trying to get better at 鈥淛eopardy!鈥� anymore. Watching it is so nice, because I can miss a question and say, 鈥淥h well, that’s not a big deal.鈥� I can go back to being a casual observer. I don’t have to worry about trying to optimize my play and thinking, 鈥淥h, you should bet correctly,鈥� and 鈥淲hat math do I do here?鈥� I now watch the show like a TV show, and that, in itself, is kind of beautiful.

Answers: What is the NAACP?, What are apples?, What is vandalism?

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UW researchers have developed a method that uses a gaming graphics card to control plasma formation in their prototype fusion reactor. Shown here is a view from inside the reactor: Plasma (bright streams) enters from the injectors on the top of the device and then organizes into a ring around the two cones visible in the middle (view here is from the side of the ring). These plasma streams move very quickly 鈥� this video is only three-thousandths of a second long. Credit: 天美影视传媒

Nuclear fusion offers the potential for a safe, clean and abundant energy source.

This process, which also occurs in the sun, involves plasmas, fluids composed of charged particles, being heated to extremely high temperatures so that the atoms fuse together, releasing abundant energy.

One challenge to performing this reaction on Earth is the dynamic nature of plasmas, which must be controlled to reach the required temperatures that allow fusion to happen. Now researchers at the 天美影视传媒 have developed a method that harnesses advances in the computer gaming industry: It uses a gaming graphics card, or GPU, to run the control system for their prototype fusion reactor.

The team May 11 in Review of Scientific Instruments.

“You need this level of speed and precision with plasmas because they have such complex dynamics that evolve at very high speeds. If you cannot keep up with them, or if you mispredict how plasmas will react, they have a nasty habit of going in the totally wrong direction very quickly,” said co-author , a UW senior research scientist in the aeronautics and astronautics department.

“Most applications try to operate in an area where the system is pretty static. At most all you have to do is ‘nudge’ things back in place,鈥� Hansen said. 鈥淚n our lab, we are working to develop methods to actively keep the plasma where we want it in more dynamic systems.”

The UW team鈥檚 experimental reactor self-generates magnetic fields entirely within the plasma, making it potentially smaller and cheaper than other reactors that use external magnetic fields.

“By adding magnetic fields to plasmas, you can move and control them without having to ‘touch’ the plasma,” Hansen said. “For example, the northern lights occur when plasma traveling from the sun runs into the Earth’s magnetic field, which captures it and causes it to stream down toward the poles. As it hits the atmosphere, the charged particles emit light.”

The UW team鈥檚 prototype reactor heats plasma to about 1 million degrees Celsius (1.8 million degrees Fahrenheit). This is far short of the 150 million degrees Celsius necessary for fusion, but hot enough to study the concept.

Here, the plasma forms in three injectors on the device and then these combine and naturally organize into a doughnut-shaped object, like a smoke ring. These plasmas last only a few thousandths of a second, which is why the team needed to have a high-speed method for controlling what’s happening.

Previously, researchers have used slower or less user-friendly technology to program their control systems. So the team turned to an NVIDIA Tesla GPU, which is designed for machine learning applications.

“The GPU gives us access to a huge amount of computing power,” said lead author , a UW research scientist in the aeronautics and astronautics department. “This level of performance was driven by the computer gaming industry and, more recently, machine learning, but this graphics card provides a really great platform for controlling plasmas as well.”

Using the graphics card, the team could fine-tune how plasmas entered the reactor, giving the researchers a more precise view of what’s happening as the plasmas form听鈥� and eventually potentially allowing the team to create longer-living plasmas that operate closer to the conditions required for controlled fusion power.

“The biggest difference is for the future,” Hansen said. “This new system lets us try newer, more advanced algorithms that could enable significantly better control, which can open a world of new applications for plasma and fusion technology.”

Additional co-authors on this paper are , a UW research scientist in the aeronautics and astronautics department; , a UW affiliate research professor in the electrical and computer engineering department; and , who completed a doctoral degree at the UW but is now the CEO of CTFusion, Inc. This research was funded by the U.S. Department of Energy and by CTFusion, Inc., through an Advanced Research Projects Agency-Energy award.

For more information, contact Hansen at hansec@uw.edu and Morgan at morgak@uw.edu.

Grant numbers: SC-0018844, DE-AR0001098

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Twenty scientists and engineers at the 天美影视传媒 are among the 38 new members elected to the Washington State Academy of Sciences for 2021, according to a July 15 . New members were chosen for 鈥渢heir outstanding record of scientific and technical achievement, and their willingness to work on behalf of the Academy to bring the best available science to bear on issues within the state of Washington.鈥�

Current academy members selected 29 of the new members. An additional nine were elected by virtue of joining one of the National Academies.

New UW members who were elected by current academy members are:

• , professor and Port of Tacoma Chair in Environmental Science at UW Tacoma, director of the and science director of the , 鈥渇or foundational work on the environmental fate, behavior and toxicity of PCBs.鈥�
• , professor of psychology, 鈥渇or contributions in research on racial and gender inequality that has influenced practices in education, government, and business鈥� and 鈥渇or shifting the explanation for inequality away from individual deficiencies and examining how societal stereotypes and structures cause inequalities.鈥�
• , professor of chemistry and member faculty at the , 鈥渇or leadership in the innovative synthesis and chemical modification of nanoscale materials for application in light emission and catalysis.鈥�
• , professor of global health and of environmental and occupational health sciences, and founding director of the , 鈥渇or work on the health impacts of climate change, on climate impact forecasting, on adaptation to climate change and on climate policy to protect health.鈥�
• , professor of environmental and forest sciences and dean emeritus of the College of the Environment, 鈥渇or foundational studies of regional paleoenvironmental history and sustained excellence in academic leadership to catalyze and sustain transformative research and educational initiatives.鈥� Graumlich is also president-elect of the American Geophysical Union.
• Dr. , the Joseph W. Eschbach Endowed Chair in Kidney Research and co-director of the , 鈥渇or pioneering contributions and outstanding achievements in the development of the novel wearable artificial kidney, as well as numerous investigator-initiated clinical trials and multi-center collaborative studies.鈥�
• , professor of environmental chemistry and chair of the Physical Sciences Division at UW Bothell, 鈥渇or leadership in monitoring and understanding the global transport of atmospheric pollutants from energy production, wildfire, and other sources, as well as science communication and service that has informed citizens and enhanced public policy.鈥�
• , professor and chair of psychology, 鈥渇or contributions demonstrating how psychological science can inform long-standing issues about racial and gender discrimination鈥� and 鈥渇or research that has deep and penetrating implications for the law and societal efforts to remedy social inequities with evidence-based programs and actions.鈥�
• , the Leon C. Johnson Professor of Chemistry, member faculty at the and chair of the Department of Chemistry, 鈥渇or developing new spectroscopy tools for measuring energy flow in molecules and materials with high spatial and temporal resolution.鈥�
• , professor of astronomy, 鈥渇or founding the and leading the decades-long development of the interdisciplinary modeling framework and community needed to establish the science of exoplanet astrobiology鈥� and 鈥渇or training the next generation of interdisciplinary scientists who will search for life beyond Earth.鈥�
• , professor and chair of aeronautics and astronautics, 鈥渇or leadership and significant advances in nonlinear methods for integrated sensing and control in engineered, bioinspired and biological flight systems鈥� and 鈥渇or leadership in cross-disciplinary aerospace workforce development.鈥�
• , associate professor of chemistry and member faculty with the Molecular Engineering and Sciences Institute, 鈥渇or exceptional contributions to the development of synthetic polymers and nanomaterials for self-assembly and advanced manufacturing with application in sustainability, medicine and microelectronics.鈥�
• Dr. , Associate Dean of Medical Technology Innovation in the College of Engineering and the School of Medicine, the Graham and Brenda Siddall Endowed Chair in Cornea Research, and medical director of the UW Eye Institute, 鈥渇or developing and providing first class clinical treatment of severe corneal blindness to hundreds of people, for establishing the world premier artificial cornea program in Washington, and for leading collaborative research to translate innovative engineering technologies into creative clinical solution.鈥�
• Dr. , professor of medicine and director of the , 鈥渇or global recognition as an authority on drug and vaccine development for viral and parasitic diseases through work as an infectious disease physician and immunologist.鈥�
• Dr. , professor of pediatrics and of anesthesiology and pain medicine, and director of the , 鈥渇or outstanding leadership in pediatric anesthesiology and in the care of children with traumatic brain injury鈥� and 鈥渇or internationally recognized expertise in traumatic brain injury and direction of the Harborview Injury Prevention and Research Center for the last decade as an exceptional mentor and visionary leader.鈥�

UW members who will join the Washington State Academy of Sciences by virtue of their election to one of the National Academies are:

• , professor of biostatistics, 鈥渇or the development of novel statistical models for longitudinal data to better diagnose disease, track its trajectory, and predict its outcomes鈥� and 鈥渇or revolutionizing how dynamic predictors are judged by their discrimination and calibration and has significantly advanced methods for randomized controlled trials.鈥� Heagerty was elected to the National Academy of Medicine in 2021.
• , the Bill and Melinda Gates Chair in Computer Science and Engineering, 鈥渇or foundational contributions to the mathematics of computer systems and of the internet, as well as to the design and probabilistic analysis of algorithms, especially on-line algorithms, and algorithmic mechanism design and game theory.鈥� Karlin was elected to the National Academy of Sciences in 2021.
• , professor emeritus of applied mathematics and data science fellow at the , 鈥渇or inventing key algorithms for hyperbolic conservation laws and transforming them into powerful numerical technologies鈥� and 鈥渇or creating the Clawpack package, which underpins a wide range of application codes in everyday use, such as for hazard assessment due to tsunamis and other geophysical phenomena.鈥� LeVeque was elected to the National Academy of Sciences in 2021.
• , the Benjamin D. Hall Endowed Chair in Basic Life Sciences and an investigator with the Howard Hughes Medical Institute, 鈥渇or advancing our physical understanding of cell motility and growth in animals and bacteria鈥� and 鈥渇or discovering how the pathogen Listeria uses actin polymerization to move inside human cells, how crawling animal cells coordinate actomyosin dynamics and the mechanical basis of size control and daughter cell separation in bacteria.鈥� Theriot was elected to the National Academy of Sciences in 2021.
• , professor and chair of biological structure, 鈥渇or elucidating cellular transformations through which neurons pattern their dendrites, and the interplay of activity-dependent and -independent mechanisms leading to assembly of stereotyped circuits鈥� and 鈥渇or revelations regarding the fundamental principles of neuronal development through the application of an elegant combination of in vivo imaging, physiology, ultrastructure and genetics to the vertebrate retina.鈥� Wong was elected to the National Academy of Sciences in 2021.

New members to the Washington State Academy of Sciences are scheduled to be inducted at a meeting in September.

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